4/29/06 Eastern Magic...We're Going!!!!!

[Belle and Rella's Dad]

I have not wanted to do this because somehow it would be like admitting that this is over, and I am not willing to accept it. I am with Steve on the watch list, I don't deal with negative behavior very well so I have a big avoidence problem, and for that I am sorry. I very much enjoyed meeting everyone, and wish we could have spent a lot more time with all, in fact looking forward to spending time with Shan and her hairy man over Turkey Day in the World.

Highlights,

Everything,

Lowlights

Nothing,

I am on the road for the next 3 nights so I will probably be able to check in for the next couple of days, but for sure we need to get ready for 2008, same bat time and same bat place. Jon and Sue all I can say is Thanks, Shyla bought me way to many drinks I need to return the favor, Suzie take good care of yourself, it is important, Pat your son and nephew are probably two of the nicest young men that I have met in a long time, it was a pleasure to have a cabin next to theirs, Sue Egg as far a becoming a Rhodie, as tempting as it is I am on the Management side so you would have to hook me up with that type of job, Steve and Shan, I feel like somehow after meeting you guys I am normal with the Disney thing, Trish tell your hubby if he is half as nice as you we will dig him, Oh Julie, enjoyed talking to both you and Ken, Barb tell Len to take it easy, you guys might now officially be some of my favorite Canucks, PhillyJen and HGPat, once again we really did not hang out until the last night, but that is all it takes to have friends for life thanks again, to anyone I left out purely on accident we had a great time and you were all a part and for that Thank you.

This does Suck,

Tom

 

[Belle&RellasMom]

QOTD

How many pictures did you take? Counting our 3 days in Universal I took over a 1000 pictures!!

439 pictures! And they are all cropped, have the red eyes removed and are uploaded to Kodak Gallery! They took 5 and a half hours to upload this afternoon!!!

And no, my laundry still isn't put away! Pictures were my priority!!!

 

[rubysmom]

My official total is 648 pictures and 13 min of mpeg, plus whatever's on my dinosaur of a Hi-8-not-even-digital camcorder which I've yet to check.

Huge let down for you all, I went back and looked again at the clip of Len and it's only 4 seconds!! I think I ran out of memory or battery, one or the other. But I do have a few choice photos. Barb I'll be sure to include them when we share!! However, I did get good long vids of Ms. Lisa (oops, I mean Gloria) Gaynor and Tom & Pango in Hollywood's Saturday Nite Fever dance number .

Suzie, I'll be checking in over there to see what needs to be done. Can't wait to share! Lots of deletions, red-eye and other corrections to be done though...Julie you amaze me!

 

[inthemood]

I
MISS
YOU GUYS!!!
Jonna​

 

[castlegazer]

I have been slacking the last couple of nights and trying depserately to rectify the enormous mess we made when we came back into our previously clean house. So I have not finished my spreads nor have I uploaded them to share. I think we have over 700 photos but it may be waaay more. I had the laptop so I could download every few days. I will check tonight. I have something like 20 of the moon and the reflection it made off our verandah one night. Gotta clean those up and delete some. I also think I took almost every shot of fireworks - gotta find the best ones. All are moderate, not great. CanadianCruiser2 has some awesome shots of them that can be found here on the DIS.

If Corey checks in here, I just also wanted to put a word out that we really had a lovely time meeting him and his wife in Palo. Corey's wife is stunningly beautiful and we wish them both all the best. We all rubbed elbows with the Captain up there with April and Tim too. I have to thank Suzie again for setting that one romantic night up for Paul and I.

Tom, no need - I truly wished we could have hung out more both that first Friday and during the cruise - although I did get crabs afer I left you. We really needed to let our hair down more, but it was hard for us. Next time we will do better being cooler and going out at night. Although, we put a mighty dent into our wine we brought on board every day and the Frangelico.

Trish, I owe you money for the wrist bands from our brunch together so I will send off a check this week. I found the money in one of my pockets as I was getting ready to put it in the laundry and realized I carried it to dinner and forgot to give it to you. I am very sorry.

 

[suziemva]

Might I just say that it feels really strange to be back to "normal" life? Getting Tori ready for school, fixing breakfast, doing laundry (Nope, Ed did it on the ship - with help from Phil! Thanks!), DRIVING my car!, and grocery shopping! WOW! Seems a bit strange to be doing such mundane things....still keep looking around for William and Viviane for my menu! What, no breakfast buffet today?!?!?! No lunch at Lumiere's? (that was SUCH a great time y'all!) Aaaaaaahhhh, that was the life!

Glad to say that it seems all the leg and ankle swelling is gone! Feels like I lost 10 pounds with all that! Thanks everyone for being so caring....sorry to whine about it, was just really strange that it happened this early in my pg! BP is back in the normal range too. Must have been high from the swelling.

Peeling, nothing more than...peeling! Yes, the sunburn has turned to tan but along with that comes the peeling! GROSS!!!! Feels like I have a disease! Should have seen the cashier at Safeway looking at my shoulder peeling! If I'd only had my camera, but alas, it was next to the computer at home.....bummer....hated to tell her it was from sunburn but she had the look of "I'm gonna call the CDC any second!"

Jonna, we miss everyone too. Hard to get back on this board and back into post cruise reality. Wish we could have hung out more (Sue E too!!). Maybe we'll just have to have a post cruise East Coast meet! Hey, that could be fun!!!

Lisa D, will you email me your phone number again?! I swear I've gone through everything and can not find it! So sorry! Hey, how was spinning?

Will try to do a longer post later but I've still got to put groceries away and go pick Tori up from school. Was gonna suprise Ed by mowing the front lawn today but the mower is totally dry! NO GAS!!! He took the gas can today to fill it up on the way home so I can't even do that. Oh, well. The jungle lives!

 

[PhillyJen2006]

Suzie- you shouldn't be doing the lawn.....again, that whole last frontier thing. Next you will try to fire up the grill..... And besides, that looks bad when a pregnant woman is mowing the lawn in this heat!

My doggie had surgery yesterday and he is just pitiful. He has a GIANT lampshade on his head and he refuses to walk with it on. It is just as well, he is a bit messy with (2) 5inch long incisions on his hind leg. Needless to say, he won't leave the kitchen and it is affecting my ability to eat!!!!

I am just having a small heart attack over the $$ we spent and believe it or not, our shipboard expenses were WAY minor in comparison. Our dogs bill at the kennel and the Vet/Surgery was roughly equivalent to a cruise fare for 1 person!! Finally the car gets paid off and now this! Great timing eh?? Wouldn't a new golden retriever have been cheaper???? JUST KIDDING!!! He's part of our family and we love him.....(I just keep telling myself that!!)

Ok gang(those who have been asking), the new website is up.....there just isn't any jewelry on it yet . Would love to hear comments on what is there so far. www.pinkpearldesigns.com!
Jewelry comes next. I have all the picture files and prices, just need descriptions. I need a copywriter for this job.....

Oh and the diet-my weight also settled down to about a 5 lb gain, but I haven't done anything about it yet. I made Lasagna for Pat's birthday dinner on Monday night along with his favorite, carrot cake....guess who has eaten most of it??????YUP!!!

We took a bunch of pictures, and uploaded them to costco.com on Monday and were able to pick them up monday afternoon- when I went for my costco fix(I't had been in too long).

Trish-we are staying at the Redmond Town Center Marriott when we are in Seattle. I got direct flights for $290 a piece-round trip!!!! YAY! Now-to decide if we bring the girls or leave them home. My mom tells me that Columbia Crest winery is there, as is Chateau St. Michelle and I'd really like to be able to experience that without my beautiful and active kids!! We'll see!

Back to reality.....Great day all!
PJ

 

[Lisa D]

I must really be the slacker in the group! I've got about 270 pictures after deleting the duplicate and blurry ones. Of those, I'll need to pick 160 to put in the photo album. Yes, we are so backward here in PA that I still make photo albums just like back in the film days. The kids enjoy looking at them.

Suzie , I sent you an e-mail. Let me know if you don't get it for some reason.

Shyla , I see you've been on the main Cruise Boards with me answering questions. I wish I was still the one asking the questions! What a great trip it was though.

Barb , you wouldn't recognize me! They made me give the boa back, and the ESPN Mugs are washed and put away until football season. How are your kids adjusting the return to school? Mine still have to take some tests they missed when we were away - Yuck!

Trish , I can't wait to see your pictures too! I have a few of Jonathan with Mike and Isaac at Coki Beach.

Tom , if you're out there, I think you saw me at both my lowest moment (Sunday Palo Brunch) and silliest moment. You and Julie are also in my picture from Tequila tasting.

STEVEMED , if you are out there, I have a message to you from Phil. He says to look out for the Phillies during the month of May! Have a great trip to our neck of the woods. Citizen's Bank Park is a lovely ballfield, even if the Phillies fans aren't quite as loyal as you Red Sox fans.

Have a great day everyone. I need to finish my trip reports and touch up my pictures. Being a part of this group really made the cruise so much fun - thank you all!

Lisa

 

[castlegazer]

Oh God. I was just reading a thread about tipping and room service and it reminded me of one of my embarssing moments on the cruise. Want to start and embarrassing moment QOTD?

I ordered the all hands on deck and it happened to arrive when we had just finished a bottle of wine. I went to find my dollars to tip and could not find them so I told the guy - no idea why I didn't get a bill where I could just sign for the tip - that I would take his name and catch up with him later. well, he no sooner closes the door then I find my money (guess the eyesight was getting a little clearer at this point ). I go bursting out the door and run to catch up with him as he is turning the corner. I procede to step into someone's room service tray outside their room, make the loudest clatter ever, get the metal plate warmers stuck to my foot, and clatter on down the hall - all to the horror of the waiter who brought the room service. He was going, "m'am, m'am, you could have called me, m'am, please don't run". No one else saw this, but man, if they had, it would have made for good photos.

 

[suziemva]

Today turned out to be a really nice day. After Ed mowed the lawn, he washed his motorcycle. Tori got to help and was awarded with a SLOW ride back to the shed in the backyard. She loved it! And no, she won't get to really ride until her feet reach the pegs!

 

[mketting]

As far as embaressing moments go I think my cousins experience takes the cake as far as out my families experiences go. Thursday on the ship was here 40th Birthday. The kids were all at the magic show demo and a bunch of us were lounging on the goofy deck getting some sun. All of the sudden we hear " Wendy, is there a Wendy out there?" The guy with the microphone on the goofy stage was calling her. She sits up and he calls her up on stage telling everyone it is her birthday today. He then asks who she is with and when he sees her Mom is there called her on stage too. He then proceeded to have my Aunt sit down and then put Wendy over her knee and Spank her!!!!! The two of them are both quiet shy people and they were soooooooooooo embarressed. The rest of us however were laughing hysterically.

 

[castlegazer]

Highlights of the first two days.



St. Maarten



St. Thomas



Castaway Cay

 

[rubysmom]

Michelle--Great story! Just when you WANT to be a wallflower is when they get ya! Just ask SueEgg! You were great, honey!
Then again there's Tom ...I know why you sit in the front row, don't try and deny it!

April, thanks for putting your pics on suzie's site. Love the ones of Epcot...we didn't get there this time. I'll be grabbing a couple that you took of the restaurant signs on board. I wanted to do that, but never got around to it...just got 3 or 4. I've just dropped off the disposable cameras to be developed onto CD and then I'll get mine loaded onto the site. BTW, is that Tiggersister2 w/you & Tim, and GrumpyC.hook & her mom? I missed out on getting to visit with them too...Amazing how the ship can seem so small, with friends around every corner, and yet big enough that you miss out on some people altogether! But, there's always 2008!

LisaD, saw your msg on yahoo...load 'em up girl! I can't wait to see them. I realized after looking thru mine that you & Phil ended up in a lot of my pictures...lots of great times on the beach, at the Goofy pool, lunch at Lumiere's, & @Bar D!

Shyla, those layouts are beautiful! I've done some block layouts like that on paper before but I'm so impressed with how good they look in digital. Also, your QOTD story is hilarious...great description, I can totally picture the whole scene!

PhillyJen, if you have time when you come out, you & HGP should ride the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train. Dave & I have done this and it's lovely! Here's a description from their website:

"The Spirit of Washington is the Northwest's only dinner train operating year round. The three and a quarter hour, 44 mile round trip journey departs from the Renton depot and travels along the east side of Lake Washington to the Columbia Winery in Woodinville. The round-trip excursion includes a three-course gourmet meal and a 45-minute stop at the winery to visit the cellar and sample their premium Northwest wines."

They take a professional photo in front of the train engine (just like Disney, lol) and of course they have a great selection of wines for purchase at the tasting. We'll have to talk more about this. BTW, Emma got Hannah's message last night and wanted to write a letter right then and there...she's still got a bunch of homework to catch up on, but she loves to draw pictures and write letters, so there'll be something coming soon! Also, the website looks FABULOUS! Nicely done, HGP! One more thing, I so understand your doggy surgery situation. My kitty still needs a 2nd surgery since the tumor margins weren't clear. More wallet trauma after the cruise, but she's been a family member longer than my husband, so you can see why we have to do this for her. Poor thing! May their recoveries be quick and complete!

Okay, as usual, I need to get back to work. Never thought the DIS would continue to be such a distraction AFTER the cruise, but I'm not complaining!

 

[BLBCB]

Where are you guys uploading pictures? I checked out the Yahoo site and didn't see anything new. I'm I just missing it, or did someone start another site?

Barb

 

[Lisa D]

Hi Barb,

Go to the messages section of the Yahoo site, Suzie posted a message yesterday giving out the website, e-mail, and password you can use. That's as far as I got so far - I'm still messing around with my pictures before I load them.

Shyla, your pictures look great!

Hi Trish, can't wait to see your pictures too. I have a lot of people but wound up with a lot of closed eyes in mine. I am an amateur photographer in the true sense of the word.

 

[hccb]

I just wanted to pop in and throw in my expressions of sheer delight that was found on our vacation, as well! Disney just knows how to put on a great show, don't they?!

We are all still on a high and hope that the feeling just lingers and lingers and lingers. I actually cried as we stepped off the ship. And not just one graceful tear either. The kind where you face gets all screwed up and you just plain look wiered. I should have just let it all out, at least then I would have minimized the wierd facial expression factor a bit!!

So, the first night, at the late Welcome Aboard variety show...the little girl that Freddy Fusion called on-stage, the teeny one dressed in a pink tank top and pink skirt? Yeah, that was my Chloe!! Her 2 seconds of fame, and she loved every second. She's still perfecting her "act like a stick" finesse What a great moment

And Partypat, it was so pleasant to have a few moments here and there to run into you and your husband. Thank you for your gentle demeanor and smiling face. I sorta wish now, in hindsight, that I had made more of an effort to get involved in here and on the ship. But it is what it is...perhaps next time!

Till We Meet Again

 

[castlegazer]

hccb - I am so glad you guys had the vacation you were dreaming of!

I missed the first show due to my son falling fast asleep at dinner and never waking until the next morning. We all decided to call it a night.

I am in deep depression now. It took a few days to settle in. I miss it sooo much. Even though travelling with our aged kids had a lot of drawbacks, it still was a wonderful, amazing time. I even miss my desk rocking. You definately need two DCL cruises under your belt to fully enjoy everything it has to offer. I felt like we spent a good bit of our time floundering around trying to get into the rhythm of the days with the kids and running from one thing to another. This is a complaint most people have of the parks, but because of years of experience we now find the parks relaxing and fun because we know how to do it and find the stuff we love to do. I am sure that DCL is the same.

I didn't get to go to one of the Navigator series of cooking demos and wish I had gotten to, but Paul did go to the Pixar lectures and liked that a lot and he was able to bring Catrina with him while she was sleeping. We did get to some of the family craft times and they actually were really fun and you got great momentos out of it. I did get to fall asleep one afternoon by the adult pool and go into it too and that was wonderful, but after my initial tour of the rainforest room with Barb, I never made it back to relax in there.

I feel like we did get wonderful time at the Mickey pool because we are early morning people and my son got a lot of time on the slide, which had much shorter lines than I would have anticipated. We never were bothered by people and their chair hogging - which was amazing to me as we just would sit on a lounge chair by the pool that had a towel ruffled up on it for an extended period of time. We never found the people who did reserve most of the chairs - they never even showed back up again. It was never a big deal, though as we spent a good deal of time either by the side of the pool or we needed to be in the shade. My whole spa experience got really screwed up due to no matinees of the shows. I just didn't want to miss a show or have the kids miss them - that is a lasting and amazing memory for me of them sitting and laughing hysterically or just glowing with joy during the shows. Catrina would clap and laugh every night. Definately can not replicate that on any other line.

We enjoyed immensely lunches in Lumieres - so wonderful! I thought the seafood buffet was absolutely amazing. I took a huge plate back to the room and then we went and got another one again. Wonderful mussels and calamari!

We could not have done the cruise without the verandah - that truly made our vacation wonderful and relaxing.

I think traveling with wee ones had some drawbacks. My biggest complaints are the hours of Flounders, the hours of Topsiders and not having a buffet to go to at night which caused a milk panic one night, and no matinees. I also didn't like how in the kids clubs they allowed kids to just go off on their own while they were doing activities - something my son took advantage of because he is shy and we found him watching TV off by himself a lot of the time he was in there. I thought they made all the kids participate. After we discussed this with him, he did participate, but it was only because we asked him to - he definately could have kept using the clubs as his personal TV time. I also didn't like the enormous amount of free time that the schedule for the 3-4's have now too. I am wondering whether they just gave up trying to get that age group to participate because all other ages had tons of activities. Because he is in day care all day long, I didn't want the clubs to just be a place to put him, I wanted it to be a wonderful, fun experience for him too. Other than that, this was an amazing experience with amazing new friends! I am sooo glad we did end up going!

 

[rubysmom]

Just a quickie here to let everyone know I put my pictures up on Suzie's site. I tried to do video but you have to subscribe with $$ to do that and I didn't want to volunteer Suzie for that! I'll try to upload them to the yahoo site. You won't want to miss Lisa, Tom, Pango & Len in all their glory!

Gotta run...PTF meetings, classroom volunteer, and Emma won't let me leave without sitting down to lunch with her... No time to weigh in today--bummer--I really want to believe that I didn't gain a ton of weight on the cruise. Maybe I can weigh in Saturday. 'bye!

 

[mom2cobysyd]

I don't have a lot of time to post but wanted to check in. I really enjoyed meeting everyone- what a nice group of people this is! The green bracelets worked out great and it was fun identifying everyone as I saw them.

We had a wonderful time and are so sad to be back. We will probably book again for 2008 but are hoping they add the double dip to Castaway Cay back to the itinerary (it is not on the 2007) as this was our favorite stop.

I haven't had a chance to look at the photos on Suzie's site but will get over there as soon as I can.

Have a great day everyone!

-Nikki

 

[castlegazer]

I hope everyone has the same good luck I did when they weigh-in. I am only up 1.8 pounds! BUT, I had gained 2.5 the weigh-in right prior to our vacation, so technically, I am up 4.3 pounds in total. Still lower than when I started thanks to you all, so that is good and it is what I was hoping for.

It definately wasn't due to eating less or better - totally due to the activity level on the ship and maybe lugging Catrina everywhere.

She began to walk in ernest about WEdnesday of this week - thanks Catrina